by David Kubicek
This is my list of classic and modern horror stories for Halloween to get you into the mood for the creepiest time of the year.
Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. When I was a kid, I wished I had been born on Halloween and was a tiny bit jealous of my cousin, Linda, who actually was born on October 31.
I’m a traditionalist about the trappings of All Hallows Eve. No misunderstood vampires or witches with hearts of gold for me. Give me a rotting corpse, rats scurrying through subterranean tunnels, or a vampire planning to snack on a priest and his entire congregation, and I’m happy.
You’ll find all of these creatures of the night–the decaying corpse, the scurrying rats, and the midnight snacking vampire–in the stories on this list of classic and modern horror tales. I first posted it several years ago on a previous blog but have tweaked it over the years, adding some stories and links and making sure the links already in place still work.
One of the latest additions is my own story, “What’s Wrong with Being a Nurse?”. Since this list’s beginning, I have followed an unwritten rule against shameless self-promotion, but I finally broke down and included “Nurse” because of comments I’ve gotten from readers.
It is almost an impossible task to make a list of good horror stories because there are legions of them, and there are many authors who aren’t on this list and probably should be. But in the interests of keeping the list manageable, I will only note a few of my favorites–although if I continue tweaking it and posting it every Halloween season for the next 20 years, the list may grow to a ponderous size.
The stories are listed in approximately the order in which they were published, ranging from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” in 1820 to “What’s Wrong with Being a Nurse?” in 2011. NOTE: I don’t receive any compensation when you click on a link (I do, however, receive a royalty if you buy The Moaning Rocks, which contains “What’s Wrong with Being a Nurse?” because it is my collection and is currently in print). The links merely suggest where you can find the story if you’re of a mind to.
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving
This is a well-crafted story by one of the first masters of the American short story. With his richly-detailed descriptions of the settings, the people, and the food, Irving transports the reader into his tale of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman.
“The Tell-tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe
I first encountered this short gem in class when I was in elementary school. Poe, like Irving, also did much to develop the style of the American short story. He wrote many other stories that are worth a read, but “The Tell Tale Heart” is one of my favorites. Also check out “The Cask of Amontillado”, another tale which I encountered in elementary school.
“The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs
This is my all-time favorite horror story, probably because it doesn’t show, but rather implies, and the implications are chilling. I also read this one (or my teacher read it to the class; I can’t remember which) when I was in elementary school. Teaching horror stories in elementary school seems to have been a trend when I was young.
“The Rats in the Walls,” “Pickman’s Model,” “Cool Air,” etc. by H.P. Lovecraft
I have never been a huge Lovecraft fan because, even though he wrote in the 1920s and 30s, his style was reminiscent of authors writing a century earlier. Also, he struggled with dialogue, so there isn’t much of it in his stories, which can slow the pace. That said, his imagination has generated many stories which have kept generations of readers awake at night. The inside of Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s mind must have been a scary place indeed. “Pickman’s Model” has been dramatized on Cabinet of Curiosities, Guillermo del Toro’s eight-part Night Gallery-like anthology series that started streaming on Netflix on October 25, 2022. This series gives new meaning to the phrase “Netflix and chill.”
“The Graveyard Rats” by Henry Kuttner
This is another one of my favorites. When Jeff Mason and I edited our anthology of original horror stories, October Dreams: a Harvest of Horror, we wanted to publish a classic story, and we chose this one because it had been out of print for years. Now OD has been out of print for years (although you can still pick up used copies on Amazon and other used book outlets), but fortunately this story is online in its entirety. The Graveyard Rats has also been dramatized on Guillermo del Toro’s eight-part Night Gallery-like anthology series that started streaming on Netflix on October 25, 2022.
“Interim”, “The Lake”, “The Emissary” and others by Ray Bradbury
Interim was my first choice for our OD classic horror story. Originally published in Bradbury’s first collection, Dark Carnival, it had been out of print for years. But while we were preparing our anthology, it was reprinted in a collection of stories from Weird Tales magazine, so we went with our second choice, “The Graveyard Rats.” Also, “The Lake,” “The Emissary” and the other stories in Bradbury’s collection The October Country are eerie journeys into the unknown.
“The Girl With The Hungry Eyes” by Fritz Leiber
I saw the Rod Serling’s Night Gallery segment based on this story before I read the original. I highly recommend it, both the story and the Night Gallery adaptation.
“The Children of the Corn”, “Survivor Type” and many others by Stephen King
Stephen King has filled several volumes with many excellent short stories. “Children of the Corn” is from his first collection, Night Shift. “Survivor Type”–about a man, stranded on a deserted island with no food, who eats himself–is from King’s collection, Skeleton Crew.
“Beat Well” by Steve Vernon
This gruesome little gem (only about 175 words), which had appeared in a magazine a short time before Jeff and I published it in October Dreams, can be read on the author’s blog.
“Sun Tea” by Robert E. Rodden II
Published for the first time in OD and out of print for years, the author has recently released this 12,000-word novelette in digital and paperback. Bob Rodden was strongly influenced by Stephen King and Ray Bradbury and those influences show in this story. “Sun Tea” is about a subtle invasion and is strong on ghastly horror with a few surprises.
“What’s Wrong With Being A Nurse?” by David Kubicek
I decided to include this story on this list because of the reactions it has gotten. It was my wife Cheryl’s favorite, and my niece Jennifer told me that it’s a “very disturbing story,” which is what I was going for–it is a horror story, after all. It is about a little girl who wants to be a human sacrifice. You can find it in my collection The Moaning Rocks and Other Stories.
Humorous Horror Stories for Halloween
It’s a very rare thing to find a humorous horror story, but there are a few around. Here are two of my favorites:
“A Case of the Stubborns” by Robert Bloch opens with the ominous line: “The morning after he died, Grandpa came downstairs to breakfast.” For the rest of the story, the grandson tries in various ways to convince Grandpa that he is, in fact, dead and should go upstairs and lie down like any self-respecting corpse. The thing that finally convinces the old gentleman is simple yet unique. Although this is a light-hearted story, the element of horror is not ignored as Grandpa decays throughout the narrative with certain body parts failing off of him at inconvenient times. Bloch was also the author of Psycho, which was the basis for Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1960 film. This story is included in Bloch’s collection Such Stuff as Screams are Made Of .
“Aqua Sancta” by Edward Bryant is a short little gem about a priest and his congregation who have been imprisoned by a vampire for a midnight snack. The story ends with the priest’s unique solution to the problem. It can be found in 100 Vicious Little Vampire Stories.
IMAGE: The Grim Reaper, by Joleene Naylor, cover from the first edition of my collection, The Moaning Rocks and Other Stories.
For more information about David Kubicek’s books click here.